“A lot of it was with parents. As I got better at swimming, I had a hard time with the parents being OK with the fact that I was beating their children. I got a lot of comments like, ‘Shouldn’t you be playing basketball?’” Jones told Channel 4 Action News.

During a visit to University Preparatory School on Friday, the 28-year-old Olympic gold medalist stressed to inner-city students how swimming is more than just a sport, it’s something that changed his life.

“No matter what your economic income is, no matter your situation at home, sports can change your life, and swimming definitely changed mine. I’d like to be the person that kind of opens that tunnel and shows the light at the end of the tunnel that this can change your life,” he said.

Growing up in Irvington, N.J., Jones entered uncharted waters when he dove headfirst into a sport where African-Americans weren’t prevalent.

“I just loved what I was doing and decided that’s what I wanted to do. Even better for me was knowing that the reason those parents were upset was because I was beating their kids. That just fueled me to be better,” Jones said.

Undeterred, Jones’ fire burned all the way to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he won a gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay in a world record time of 3:08.24. Four years later, he won silver medals in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4x100-meter freestyle relay and another gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Jones said getting back to his roots and interacting with kids while emphasizing the importance of swimming has been a lot of fun.

“One of the biggest things that I love doing is pushing the message of learning how to swim. That’s the biggest thing, is getting kids to understand how important it is,” Jones said.